Wikipedia to go down in protest

It is the battle of the movie makers against the internet and it is coming to a computer near you.

Online encyclopaedia Wikipedia has announced it will black out the pages of its English-language website for 24 hours starting Wednesday (US time) in protest at draft anti-online piracy legislation before the US congress.

Wikipedia is one of the world's most popular websites, getting almost 500 million visitors a month. On Tuesday the site's founder, Jimmy Wales, tweeted that the site would be shutting down.

"Student warning, do your homework early, Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!" he said on Twitter.

"'Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.' MLK - on Wednesday, Wikipedia demands," Mr Wales said, citing slain US civil rights leader Martin Luther King.